Irene Chen
PROFESSOR
CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING
BIOENGINEERING
5531 Boelter Hall
Email: ireneachen@ucla.eduWebsites
RESEARCH AND INTERESTS
- Biomolecular design and evolution:
- minimal synthetic cells
- biomolecular fitness landscapes
- bacteriophage-based nanotechnology
NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS
IN THE NEWS
- Why is Life on Earth Left-Handed? No-One Knows | BBC Sky at Night Magazine, February 2025
- NASA Scientists Want to Solve a Mystery: Why Did Life “Turn Left?” | Mashable, February 2025
- Emergent properties as by-products of prebiotic evolution of aminoacylation ribozymes | Nature Communications, June 2022
- Nanomaterial-enabled bacteriophage therapy for wound infections | Nano Werk, May 2022
EDUCATION
- Bauer Fellow, FAS Center of Systems Biology, Harvard University, 2007-2012
- Ph.D. in Biophysics, Harvard University, (Advisor: Jack Szostak), 1999-2007
- M.D. in Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999-2007
- A.B. in Chemistry (summa cum laude), Harvard University, (Advisor: Gregory Verdine) 1995-1999
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
- Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, 2018
- Regents Junior Faculty Fellowship, 2017
- NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, 2016
- Hellman Family Faculty Fellowship, 2015
- Searle Scholar Award, 2014
- Investigator of the Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life, 2013-2023
- David White Research Award from the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (given triennially), 2011
- G.E. and Science Prize for Young Life Scientists, 2006
- Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, 2005
- Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, 1998
- Westinghouse Science Talent Search, 1st place, 1995